More Fundraising Success

We did it! Back to school today and although Ally was tired this morning she made it to school and also through the whole day without calling home. When she got off the bus today she was smiling and happy and said that she had a good day. I was so happy for her. The highs are so high and the lows are so low...so I really do appreciate just a good happy day. I knew she was really feeling good after school. Normally she will relax for quite a while, but today she ate a snack and then asked if she could go next door to see if her friend Madden wanted to play. I almost went into shock over this.

A cute story to share....her friend Madden has a vegetable garden. So they were picking a zuchinni together and decided that they should pick a bunch of vegetables and then sell them to raise money for the Light the Night Walk. So they took their wagon of vegetables around to my very generous neighbors and collected $35 for the walk. Innovative!

Speaking of generous neighbors, tonight was the Tastefully Simple fundraiser party at the Centre in our neighborhood. Ally and I went up to the party together and I was completely shocked that 50 (FIFTY!) of my friends and neighbors attended this event on her behalf. Wow. There were quite a few people that were there that I hadn't even spoken to since everything has happened. The outpouring of support was just tremendous and now I feel like I have many more doors to knock upon should an emergency ever arise. I even found out that one of my neighbors who is a nurse practitioner used to work with the Hemoc kids at Children's. I now have her phone number and she said she would come to my house night or day to help us. I hope I never need it, but that does give me peace of mind. I believe we raised several hundred dollars at this event that will all go towards the L&L Society via the walk. I will update when we get a final number in.

I planned on taking Ally just so that she could say hi to a few of the people and so that they could see what we were working for. My Ally used to be the type of girl that HATED to be the center of attention. Well now I am starting to notice that she is exactly the opposite. She walked through the room and talked to all sorts of adults that she had never even met before. Several times I was on one side of the room and there she was on the other side...the only kid there...just chatting it up with somebody. I was SO PROUD of her. Most kids would totally shy away from having to talk to a bunch of adults. And she used to be that kid. But now, well maybe she is sort of an adult in a way, she sure has had to face things that most adults couldn't even handle. There aren't too many positive things that come about from a leukemia diagnosis, but this is one that I can think of. She is so much more confident and strong and brave. It turns out I could barely get her to leave the party...she kept wanting to try more food and hang out just a little longer. I was just so proud of her. So proud.

Trying out some of the food.....

This is Ally's Great Grandma.....who came to the party. Thanks Bam Bam.

We went and did her bloodwork late this afternoon. I will call and get her ANC results in the morning. I am praying for a 750 number...then she won't have to do another blood test. They would start chemo on Friday when she is admitted to the hospital. If the counts are not high enough, they will test her again on Thursday. Another finger prick, more crying. So I am just hoping that today's blood will be good enough to get the green light.

Thanks for all of the support! It means so much to all of us. Hopefully someday I can do favors for each and every one of you.